The Man Behind The Curtain - Season 3x20 Rewatch

[Kiowa Warrior]

THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

The twentieth episode of Season 3 is Ben’s flashback, where we learn that his mother died giving birth to him and that he has not lived on the island his entire life as he’s previously claimed. Years later Ben arrives with his father, Roger, on the island where Roger starts a job as a workman and Ben attends the school Dharma has set up and makes friends with a girl called Annie. One year when it’s Ben’s birthday Annie gives him a wooden doll while she keeps a male one, saying that it’s so they never have to be apart. That evening Roger has forgotten that it’s Ben’s birthday and blames him for his mother’s death. Ben runs out and sees a vision of his mother by the sonic fence, and Ben is determined to cross it. He gets the code to deactivate it and successfully crosses it, and he runs through the jungle he meets Richard Alpert, one of the Hostiles that Dharma is against, who tells Ben that he can join them if he’s patient. Further on it time when Ben’s an adult and it’s his birthday again, he takes a drive with his father and they park up as Ben checks his watch. Suddenly Ben puts on a gas mask and releases a canister in the van, and soon Roger is dead. Back at the Dharma barracks people are lying dead all around, also victims of a gas attack that Richard and his people have helped planned.

Meanwhile on the island Ben is studying the wooden doll that Annie gave him when suddenly Locke enters the camp with his father’s body, wanting answers about everything on the island. Ben says that Jacob is the one actually in charge and Locke demands to see him, when Mikhail runs into the camp telling everyone about Naomi. Locke beats Mikhail after he questions why Ben would take him to see Jacob, and reluctantly Ben leads him into the jungle to see him. That night they reach a small hut after crossing a ring of ash surrounding it, and inside is an empty chair that Ben says is not empty, because Jacob is sitting on it. Locke tells Ben that he is a pathetic liar, when suddenly the hut shakes and Locke hears a voice say ‘help me.’ They leave the hut with Locke claiming that Jacob is just a trick and that he’s going to expose Ben as a liar to everyone else, but before going back to the barracks they make a detour to an open grave filled with the bodies of Dharma workers. Ben says that he was smart enough not to end up like them, before shooting Locke causing him to topple into the pit. Ben demands to know what Jacob said to Locke, and Locke repeats his words before Ben walks away, leaving him for dead.

[Murgatroyd]

Very good episode. Well done those kids. Occasion of Ben's most and least charming hours (his childhood, minus the early bunny-harming tendencies, followed by the whole murder-fest thing and the stroppy shooting of Locke because Jacob had the gall to talk to him). I don't entirely know how I feel about the Jacob scene. I don't think it was disappointing really - actually I think it was about as good a revelation as it could've been. Half a myth, half a scared old man. I still Locke should've sat in the chair though.

[Him]

Excellent episode. Possibly the best of season 3.

Originally Posted by Murgatroyd

I still Locke should've sat in the chair though.

You've said this so often I now can't help but think it every time I see that scene.

[Murgatroyd]

Originally Posted by Him

Excellent episode. Possibly the best of season 3.


You've said this so often I now can't help but think it every time I see that scene.

I was willing him to do it all through that scene. Patently if you want to show the mad person that the chair he's talking to is empty, you sit in it. I shall never get over my disappointment.

[Him]

It never really occurred to me at the time, though it does now (). Instead, I was willing him to get his torch, turn it on, and start waving it about to mock him - which he did to a certain extent. Of course, on review, it looks like the house started shaking only because he was about to tell Ben what Jacob said to him.

On an unrelated note, one thing that sticks out at me in this episode, is that right before Locke went in, he was making sure his gun was close at hand, and yet later, Ben had the gun out of the blue, without us ever seeing it changing hands (over what must have been several hours - it was daylight).

[Murgatroyd]

I've been meaning to say - when the torchlight hits the seat of the chair, and if you pause the DVD quite a lot, you can quite clear see a circular shadow right in the middle of the beam that can't be being cast by anything in the hut. I was wondering if that was a black-smoke link at all.

[Him]

Very good spot. When you described it, I thought you were you just referring to the fact that torches tend to be duller in the middle (for some convoluted reason I can't remember accurately at the moment), but what's seen in the episode definitely isn't that, I agree.
It quite possibly could be the Black Smoke.

[KatesFate]

This is definitly one of my favorite episodes. The end of season 3 had some real good epis. I love when Locke beats up Mikhail and everyone including Richard and Tom just stand there and let him do it without listening to Ben.

I know this is going to sound crazy and very far fetched but in this episode if you pay attention to Annie's mannerisms, she comes across an awful lot like Kate. I believe Kate even refers to herself as "Annie" once when shes on the run. Although I know it can't be Kate I can't help but wonder if there is some relation there. That and where in the H*** is she now? I don't know why, but that little mystery drives me crazy!! Could Ben really have killed Annie in the purge as well?

Now I am just plain rambling, but something just dawned on me. Annie gave Ben a doll. Rousseau leaves dolls around the island as traps. Could Rousseau be Annie after all?

[The Wizard]

Rousseau's French... Annie, quite clearly, is not.

[Easily confused]

Originally Posted by KatesFate

Now I am just plain rambling, but something just dawned on me. Annie gave Ben a doll. Rousseau leaves dolls around the island as traps. Could Rousseau be Annie after all?

that would be good. I am sure there can be some way of explaining why she now thinks she is French

This is the only episode that contains Ben in that I actually don't mind him. I love how he and Locke interact with eachother like two school boys in the playground trying to out do eachother with words

[charlierocks]

One thing that always puzzles me in this episode is who the island actually wanted when they found Ben with his Mum and Dad. It's been said loads of times about kids and daddy issues, so it seems as though Richard Alpert must have encouraged, if not helped Ben, to kill Roger. Was Roger actually a bad guy, like Cooper turned out to be. So maybe Ben killing him proved he was good?? It seems odd to think that they were both bought to the island if they knew that Roger was that bad???

[D-Roc]

Originally Posted by charlierocks

One thing that always puzzles me in this episode is who the island actually wanted when they found Ben with his Mum and Dad. It's been said loads of times about kids and daddy issues, so it seems as though Richard Alpert must have encouraged, if not helped Ben, to kill Roger. Was Roger actually a bad guy, like Cooper turned out to be. So maybe Ben killing him proved he was good?? It seems odd to think that they were both bought to the island if they knew that Roger was that bad???

Ben may well have been 'destined' to come to the island - if so, it certainly brings back the divine intervention aspect of LOST - perhaps last seen when Emiliy Locke told John that he was imaculately conceived.

The debate over who killed Emily - was it Ben, fate or simply her biological make-up, is an interesting one - which is perhaps similar to the debate over how Susan (Walt's mom) died..

I'm not sure anyone is really bad or good..Roger was certainly nasty towards Ben and abused him severely on the mental level - no child should have to go through thinking that they are to blame for their parents death - especially when it's through child birth. However, I'm not sure the suggestion is that Roger was a "bad person" - rather that his influence had a huge hand in Ben being on the island, and - as you say -ultimately being befriended by Alpert, who I would agree, had a huge influence in Ben killing his father and the Dharma purge.

I don't think that Ben killing Roger, proves that Rogers was good - I wouldn't say it works like that. Unless you're suggesting that Roger was a martyr? Which I wouldn't think is the case..but even then, those who die are not necessarily redeemed.

Interesting nonetheless!

[D-Roc]

I think I appreciate the quality of this episode more now than I did back in May. I always loved the episode, but rewatching the scenes between Ben, the Others and Locke is just fantastic.

From Alex' betrayal by handing Locke the gun to Mikhail's outrage at Ben's compliance in taking Locke to see Jacob, to Ben's subtle confirmation of Alpert's agelessness: "You remember birthdays, don't you Richard", to the errie cabin scene.


There is so much juice in this episode and it's got huge replay value.

Of course the two most stunning scenes (along w/ the Jacob scene) was seeing the Dharma purge, and Ben showing Locke 'his people' and then proceeding to put a bullet in his empty kidney space.

"Well John, I sure hope Jacob helps you"

Just brilliant.

Re-watch value: 9.5/10